Thursday, August 22, 2013

Thoughtful Thursday-Paris Bound

We are Paris bound—a three week stay in an apartment we are renting in the 19th arrondissement. As the time draws near—we leave on September 16—I am in a state of anticipation and wonder. Our last visit was 30 years ago when the above picture was taken. During our last trip, I was immersed in calligraphy, interested in Abstract Expressionism and gesture, and beginning to feel the urge to try to make work that was less interpretive and more my own. We saw lots of art and were particularly fond of the Pompidou Center and its bold architecture and collection.

My new interest is making Print On Demand books (Art Lessons, The Wondrous Nearer Drew so far, and The Spirit Books to come later in the fall) and I go with the intention of creating a book on my return. I know I want to take lots of pictures of gardens and flowers, streetscapes and buildings, letters and signs, things bookish, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I will then have the opportunity to relive it all as I work to put the images and my thoughts and feelings together into a whole that expresses my experience of the city. To that end I am going with an open mind, reading less than I ordinarily would in preparation. I had a stack of books to read—by and about Colette, Adrienne Monnier, Janet Flanner, Eiffel, Camus—and reread—Hemingway, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Morley Callaghan, the Murphys, and Julia Child. I decided to save those until my return although I may tuck Callaghan's That Summer in Paris in my suitcase.

I hope that next month brings me both—new landscapes and new eyes.

If you have any suggestions of places to visit, please share them. The blog will be on holiday while I am away but I will be posting some images to facebook.

Hi, a calligraphy friend just pointed me to your wonderful blog. You might be interested in the book, Literary Paris, by Jessica Powell about the well-known authors who lived in the city (many of them American) and about the places they lived and frequented. I imagine you'd have time to search out a place or two during your 3-weeks.